ACTUALIZACIÓN 2: Reescribí la consulta recursiva original para que toda la acumulación/agregación se realice fuera de la parte recursiva. Debería funcionar mejor que la versión anterior de esta respuesta. Esto es muy parecido a la respuesta de @a_horse_with_no_name para una pregunta similar.
WITH
RECURSIVE search_graph(edge, from_node, to_node, length, area, start_node) AS
(
SELECT edge, from_node, to_node, length, area, from_node AS "start_node"
FROM tree
UNION ALL
SELECT o.edge, o.from_node, o.to_node, o.length, o.area, p.start_node
FROM tree o
JOIN search_graph p ON p.from_node = o.to_node
)
SELECT array_agg(edge) AS "edges"
-- ,array_agg(from_node) AS "nodes"
,count(edge) AS "edge_count"
,sum(length) AS "length_sum"
,sum(area) AS "area_sum"
FROM search_graph
GROUP BY start_node
ORDER BY start_node
;
Los resultados son los esperados:
start_node | edges | edge_count | length_sum | area_sum
------------+-------------+------------+------------+------------
1 | {A} | 1 | 1.1 | 0.9
2 | {B} | 1 | 1.2 | 1.3
3 | {C} | 1 | 1.8 | 2.4
4 | {D,B,A} | 3 | 3.5 | 3.5
5 | {E,D,C,B,A} | 5 | 6.4 | 6.8